A podcast host covering spooky content moves in to care for her dying mother. When sent recordings of a pregnant couple's paranormal encounters, she discovers their story parallels hers, each tape pushing her toward madness.
Director: Ian Tuason
Cast: Nina Kiri, Kris Holden-Ried, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keana Lyn Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Sarah Beaudin, Brian Quintero
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated R for language.
Runtime: 1h 25m
Review:
Undertone auditory focused horror is a novel approach to creating a sense of building dread and tension, even though the story boasts a bevy of well-worn tropes, that leads to a frightful funhouse finale which is sure to be divisive. Writer/director, Ian Tuason, feature film debut is impressively well constructed using the single location setting to great effect by creating a claustrophobic sense of isolation for his lead character. Tuason borrows from multiple sources to craft his story which leans heavily into religious horror ala The Exorcist while mixing it with a heathy dose of elements from the Paranormal Activity films with a sprinkle of 1981’s Possession. His use of a static camera to slowly reveal blink or you’ll miss them imagery which makes for a handful of effective moments of dread, rarely relying on cheap jump scares. It’s definitely more of a slow burn approach which requires a fair amount of patience as we follow Nina Kiri’s Evy descent into darkness. Kiri is the lone performer onscreen for the better part of the film, Michelle Duquet’s Mama is comatose for the majority of the film, and she delivers a solid if even performance. Kiri is far more comfortable in the podcast portion of the film, playing off Kris Holden-Ried’s disembodied voice on the phone with naturalistic ease that gives you a sense they’ve known each other for a good amount of time. The story doesn’t give this relationship nearly enough time to fully establish their connection or even why they started this podcast in the first place which would have provided some better insight into both characters. There are bits and pieces of background information dropped about Evy which leans heavily into Catholic guilt while also leaving open a sliver of an opening as to whether anything we are seeing is real or simply a result of her having a severe mental breakdown. The moments with her bed-stricken mother are a tad clunkier than they should be but it’s hard to place all the blame on Kiri since the script has some terribly generic characterization and dialogue. Jeff Yung and Keana Bastidas's performances as Mike and Jemma as the doomed couple on the audio files are solid throughout, painting a vivid picture of their Paranormal Activity like experience which propels the action into Undertone’s finale which is sure to provide its fair share of chills and groans.
B+
No comments:
Post a Comment